Darmstadtium is a radioactive element that does not exist in nature. It has to be made. The isotopes with an atomic mass from 267 to 273 have very short half-lifes. The half life of these isotopes is measured in milliseconds. Isotopes of darmstadtium with an atomic mass of 279 and 281 were synthesised after the other isotopes. Ds-279 and Ds-281 decay more slowly. The isotope with an atomic mass of 279 has a half life of 180 milliseconds and Ds-281 has a half life of 11.1 seconds.

No uses for darmstadtium are known. What darmstadtium looks like is not known because not enough has been made to see it with human eyesight.

This is shown by the equation below that is the reaction that happened. Pb is the symbol for lead, Ni is the symbol for nickel and n is the symbol for a neutron.

The element was named for Darmstadt which was the place of its discovery. The GSI is in Wixhausen, a part of the north of the city of Darmstadt. The new name (darmstadtium) was given to the chemical element by the IUPAC in August 2003.[2]